Glenn Heights, Texas

Area Profile

18,096 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Glenn Heights, in Ellis County.

70out of 100
Area Score
Top 18% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 37% of 3,904 published cities62
GrowthTop 33% of 2,973 published cities59
Housing affordability2423rd of 4,223 published cities76
Climate2495th of 4,223 published cities68
Physical resilienceTop 23% of 4,182 published cities81
AccessTop 47% of 4,226 published cities93
Economic stabilityTop 32% of 4,226 published cities69
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.6% and median household income $81,718, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Residential permitting has slowed: 90 units authorized over the past twelve months, 62% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Glenn Heights in the top 23% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
18,096
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$81,718
Top 32% nationally
Density
2,488/sq mi
7.3 sq mi of land
Median age
33.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Ellis County
Texas
Metro area
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
Nearest major airport
DAL
20 mi · Dallas Love Fld
Median home value
$309,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.6% is lower than 39% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 120,105 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$15,922$81,718Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,115$31,569Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.0%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute35.9 minTop 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher27.1%Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment120,105Top 37%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.5%Top 5%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 35%June 2026
Labor force125,926Top 37%June 2026
Labor force participation72.7%Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$70,630Top 45%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,440Top 48%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 19%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.6%Top 39%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202488k80k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $81,718 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers128,380$28,070
General and Operations Managers125,090$111,010
Stockers and Order Fillers111,100$37,590
Retail Salespersons100,340$33,400
Customer Service Representatives96,930$44,990
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand81,940$38,510

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Ellis County, TX, which contains this city.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,675 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
24.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,675
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$309,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.79Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate78.4%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5096,073Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$382$1,675Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$20,402$309,600Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.6%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.0%Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
59/ 100
Top 33% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 23% since 2020, reaching 19,752 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 5.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
90
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.0
Top 29% nationally
Year over year
−62%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202420k16k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20202022202320242025423104
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−75%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 96°F and January a low of 38°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 37.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 36, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

30°50°70°90°110°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station DALLAS REDBIRD AP, 9.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation37.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low38°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high96°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index36.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing38°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
36
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
51
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

81 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, hail and lightning.

HailElevated
TornadoModerate
LightningModerate
WildfireModerate
Winter weatherModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, cold wave, inland flooding, ice storm, earthquake, hurricane, strong wind, drought, landslide.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Ellis County records 4.2 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 10.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 6.7 per 100,000 residents in Ellis County.

Homicide
4.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
6.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Ellis County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Glenn Heights rather than Glenn Heights itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 20 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Dallas Love FldDAL20 mi8,800 ft
Dallas-Fort Worth IntlDFW26 mi13,401 ft
Perot Fld/Fort Worth AllianceAFW41 mi11,125 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
70
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Other cities in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
DallasDallas County1,307,93059vs Glenn Heights
Fort WorthTarrant County963,19464vs Glenn Heights
ArlingtonTarrant County397,74261vs Glenn Heights
PlanoCollin County290,59472vs Glenn Heights
IrvingDallas County256,49257vs Glenn Heights
GarlandDallas County246,84458vs Glenn Heights
FriscoCollin County219,30476vs Glenn Heights
McKinneyCollin County210,60075vs Glenn Heights
Grand PrairieDallas County201,88362vs Glenn Heights
DentonDenton County152,86666vs Glenn Heights
MesquiteDallas County149,29958vs Glenn Heights
CarrolltonDenton County133,74065vs Glenn Heights

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.